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British Library, Add MS 30927. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), II, pp. 106–108.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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The intelligence which I have to communicate will surprize you, if you have not already heard it from some other
quarter. My Uncle is married. The Imperial Colonel told me this was to be the case, some eight or nine weeks ago, adding that
he had seen the Lady, but there are so many Hills in the world that I utterly
disbelieved his reported rumours. Married however he is to the fourth daughter of Lovelace Bigg Wither, a gentleman of great weight in
the county of Hampshire, & of the very ancient & good family of my old friend George Wither the poet. It seems however that he
must have taken the name for an estate, for his daughters name was Bigg.xx is not this eempraunce in any body who lives by the Black
Mountains
I am heartily glad of this, for it frequently made me uneasy to think how solitary the remainder of my Uncles life was
likely to be. He has none of those inveterate habits which often render late marriages uncomfortable, – all his habits have been
plucked up by the roots, & he had new ones to acquire. The evil is that if he should have children there is no hope of his living
to see them grow up. That however is a remote evil. There will be enough for their education, & if I am living there will be
somebody to superintend it. Cousin Robert will not do for a play fellow, when the age of riding pocko is
over,
And so Tom we have got another Aunt by the Lord! – How will this be relished in the College Green?
And now after this Gazette Extraordinary, comes the flat part of the newspaper, filled up how it can. It is time that
another Letter should arrive from you, & I am daily looking for it. Two proofs of Thalaba have reached me, the notes are in a very
beautiful type, & this edition will greatly x excel the former in its appearance.
A few days ago came a letter from Bedford,
communicating to me the as yet secret intelligence, that it is thought expedient to set on foot a Review for counteracting the base
& cowardly politicks of the Edinburgh. Walter Scott it seems was the
suggestor, to some of the men in power. – xx
Gifford – (the Baviad & Massinger Gifford) is to be Editor, & he
commissioned Bedford to apply to me. The pay will be as high as the Edinburgh, – & such political information as is necessary will
be official communicated from official sources, – for in plain English the ministers set it up. But they wish it not to wear a party
appearance, – only to breathe at this time the right English at-him-Trojan spirit. Would I write about Spain was asked. I have asked in
return if they can bear to have the principle avowed of no peace while Bonaparte lives, – & if I may damn Sir Hew Dalrymple,o – & a friend to reform as being the only thing which can prevent revolution. All fair & above-board. The
articles which are in fashion will most likely weigh down those that are not. But is it not amusing that such an application should be
made to me from such a quarter!
Little Mr De Quincey is at Grasmere – he was here last week, & is coming again – I wish he was not so little, & I wish he would not leave his great coat always behind upon the road. But he is a very able man, with a head brimful of information.
Nothing can be done in the way of a County meeting against Ld
Lonsdale – Wordsworth therefore is now writing a pamphlet about the
Convention,